Came across some photo’s I took back in August 2010. August 25th to be exact. Kenny and I whilst on Honeymoon in Taormina took a trip out to Mount Etna….and wow what a trip…one I’ll never forget, reminded me how much power Big Mama Nature has over us insignificant little humans.

This has to be my favorite photo of the event. I just love how those fearless folk are walking straight towards the action.

Pretty Plume

Etna lets us know she’s alive and well.

I was a little bit concerned at this point…

This trip to Etna was on the 4th day of our Honeymoon. When we first arrived I realised I’d forgotten my camera so we went out and just bought the first’ Point- and- Shoot’ we could find and afford. We ended up getting a Kodak EasyShare C142 and I’m so glad we did. I really love the way these pics turned out.

Mount Etna

It burned under us as we walked
Gravelly over the bed of a deep thunder.
Smoke whooshed out of the belly of the crater
Filling our lungs with the pregnancy of a planet.
I was nervous trekking with you on my back
while the troupe had gone on ahead.
It was dangerous. Too dangerous for us,
But this journey was what you cried for.
Your fingers crisped with the first sharp freeze
But walk we would, after the team,
Feet hacking over the slip shoddy rock.
I held your ice-red fingers to the warm stone
And we trudged on
to the first legendary story of your life.
I held you on my aching back
As we tracked a sometimes fatal trail of history
Dating back to the dawn of this ball of fire.
Sometimes I stumbled and you were afraid.
No doubt. There was a steep dropp either side
Into the centre of all scorching things.
But we came out cool, and we came out dry.
My son, not too many boys of two years old
Scale one of the tallest volcanoes
Into the sky.

Cherry Blossom another one of my Springtime favorites. I love the way it looks sweet and delicious like giant candy floss. And the delicate pale pink flowers (even set against a grey London sky) give me the feeling that Winter is over and change is afoot.

A Spring View by Tu Fu (c. 750, trans. Witter Bynner, 1920)
Though a country be sundered, hills and rivers endure;
And spring comes green again to trees and grasses
Where petals have been shed like tears
And lonely birds have sung their grief.
…After the war-fires of three months,
One message from home is worth a ton of gold.
…I stroke my white hair. It has grown too thin
To hold the hairpins any more.